"Safe" Radiation is a Lethal TMI Lie

Mar 27, 2011

With erratic radiation spikes, major air and wateremissions and at least three reactors and waste pools in serious danger atFukushima, we must prepare for the worst.

When you hear the terms "safe" and"insignificant" in reference to radioactive fallout, ask yourself:"Safe for whom?" "Insignificant to which ofus?"

Despite the corporate media, what has and willcontinue to come here from Fukushima is deadly to Americans. At veryleast it threatens countless embryos and fetuses in utero, the infants, theelderly, the unborn who will come to future mothers now beingexposed. (http://nukefree.org/arnie-gundersen-radiation-dangers )

No matter how small the dose, the human egg inwaiting, or embryo or fetus in utero, or newborn infant, or weakened elder, hasno defense against even the tiniest radioactive assault.

Science has never found such a “safe” threshold, andnever will.

In the 1950s Dr. Alice Stewart showed a definitivelink between medical x-rays administered to pregnant women and the curse ofchildhood leukemia among their offspring.

After a fierce 30-year debate, the medical professionagreed. Today, administering an x-ray to a pregnant woman isuniversally understood to be a serious health hazard.

Those who pioneered the health physicsprofession---towering greats like Dr. Karl Z.Morgan and Dr. John Gofman---set adefinitive, impenetrable standard. A safe dose of radiation does not exist. All doses, “insignificant” or otherwise, can harm the humanorganism.

The death and mutation rate among farm and wildanimals was also thoroughly documented by the Pennsylvania Department ofAgriculture and a team of investigators from the BaltimoreNews-American.

We were again told there were “no health dangers” fromradiation that hit California from Chernobyl ten days after that 1986explosion. But bird births at the Point Reyes National Seashore quicklydropped 60% from the levels that had been carefully monitored and recordedthrough the previous decade.

The cloud then crossed the northern tier of the UnitedStates. Heightened radiation levels were found in milk in NewEngland---as they were throughout Europe from clouds that had blown fromChernobyl in the other direction.

In Russia ten years later, I interviewed dozens ofdownwind victims, and many of the 800,000 “liquidators” who ran intoChernobyl’s seething corpse to helpclean it up. After TMI, it was déjà vuall over again.

The most recently published findings, from acompendium of more than 5,000 studies,indicate a global Chernobyl death toll inexcess of 985,000, and still counting. ( http://www.nukefree.org/node/1828 ).

Today we are assaulted by yet another radioactivedeath cloud from yet another“perfectly safe” nuclear plant.

Fukushima’s radiation is pouring into the air andwater. The operators have reported radiation levels a million timesnormal, then retracted the estimate to a "mere" 100,000. Workersare being exposed to doses that are certain to be lethal. At leastthree of the reactors, and one or more of the spent fuel pools, hover at thebrink of catastrophe.

Fukushima’s radiation has now been detected in LosAngeles and Sacramento, and has blown east across North America. It hasalso been detected in Sweden, which means it's blowing across Europe aswell.

Radiationis not being released as a single puff.Rather it's a steady stream thatcould yet turn into atsunami.

Fukushima’s worst may be yet to come. Itscollective emissions are virtually certain to exceed Chernobyl’s.

And yet we continue to hear smug, misinformed“experts,” TV meteorologists and industry talking heads saying these are “safe”doses.

The response of the Obama Administration has beenbeyond derelict. As the accident began, the President went on nationaltelevision to assure us there was nothing to worry about, and that he wouldcontinue to demand $36 billion in loan guarantees to build new nuclear plants.

Since then, even as the Fukushima crisis mounts,President Obama has remained silent.

Millions of Americans have heard about potassiumiodide (KI), which can be used block the uptake of radioactive iodine andperhaps protect the thyroid.

But KI can have potential medical side-effects forsome individuals. And timing can be critical. To say the least, weneed to know when the radioactive fallout is present.

Yet the administration has not provided us with anational supply of KI, or guidance for using it.

At very least we need reliable real-time mapping ofthe radioactive clouds as they cross the nation. Every Americanshould be issued a mask, and sufficient KI pills with directions on how to usethem, if necessary.

Above all, we need national leadership that puts thehealth of our people first and foremost.

Americans who are of reproductive age---and theirunborn, our babies, the elderly, those of us who may be speciallysensitive---we all deserve better.

As we have learned so tragically from Drs.Stewart, Morgan, Gofman and Sternglass, from Gundersen and Mangano and so manyother researchers, from TMI and Chernobyl, and from the on-going operation ofnuclear plants where infant death rates continue to be affected---a “perfectlysafe” dose of radiation does not exist.

1. DEMAND a national real-time monitoring network thatcan tell us how much radiation is coming down in our country. Incredibly,our current system relies on volunteers and VERY unreliable slipshod methods.Ironically, the monitors at our existing nukes can be used as part of thenetwork. But we MUST have reliable measurement to protect ourselves.Tell them we need to know, IMMEDIATELY, how much radiation is coming overthis country from Japan and where it is going;

2.DEMAND that every American be issued a breathing mask and a supplyof potassium iodide (KI) to protect against possible thyroid damage from Iodine131 fallout. The use of KI is well-established, but there is no reliablesupply, and there is no standardized source to find out how to use it. Insome cases, KI may not be appropriate or beneficial. But there is nodoubt its availability is essential to protecting the public.

3.DEMAND the rapid shutdown of all US nuclear plants, but especiallythe 23 General Electric Mark I reactors that are virtually identical to UnitOne at Fukushima. These include Vermont Yankee, Indian Point and othersin high-risk regions. They are old, stuffed up with nuke waste, andridiculously dangerous. Some are being given license extensions.This must STOP, and these plants must shut immediately. You can dothis by email via: http://nukefree.org/nirs-shut-all-ge-mark-i-reactors-now .

5.And, if you've still got some breath in you, tell the White House andCongressionals to rescind the Price-Anderson Act, which limits the liability ofa reactor owner to just $12.6 billion in the face of an accident that couldkill millions and cost trillions. No other industry gets this kind ofpublic insurance. Why should the nukes?

Takenas a whole, this is an agenda that can change the world and move us very fardown the road to a green-powered Earth. But it can't be just once.Take these five steps every day until they are all realized.Continue to contact your Senators and Representative until this agenda iswon!! Become a fixture at town hall or the state legislature. Haveyour friends do the same!

Nuclear power allows us no room for "a good-faithlosing effort." So let's win....and be NukeFree !!! Thanks.

About this blog:

NukeFree.org was founded in 2007 by Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash and friends to stop a proposed $50 billion loan guarantee package meant to finance new nuclear reactor construction. Joining a successful national grassroots campaign, they established this website and recorded the YouTube video on the home page.

Editor Harvey Wasserman has worked with Bonnie, Jackson, and Graham since the late 1970s and the legendary Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) concerts in Madison Square Garden. This website is meant to inform and inspire those who continue to work for a green-powered Earth, free from the plague of atomic energy. Please feel free to write Harvey with your comments and with URLs for articles you'd like to see appear on these pages.